Neighbors Tee Off On Golf Course

Morning Mowing Stirs Debate In Algonquin

Even at the best of times, lawn mowers are not what most people want to hear churning away nearby. They are even less desirable at 5:30 a.m.

But that, Golf Club of Illinois officials and some Algonquin residents argue, is part of the price one pays for living near a golf course.

And Algonquin is considering modifying its long-standing, but rarely enforced, lawn mower ordinance to give the Golf Club of Illinois more leeway in getting its greens and fairways ready for each day's rounds.

The course is at Edgewood and Hanson Roads in Algonquin and is known for its "prairie links" design, with no trees.

Recent complaints by newcomers living near the greens prompted the village this summer to enforce its ordinance, which prohibits lawn mower use before 7:30 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 8:30 a.m. Sundays, said Mike Friesen, assistant village manager.

The Village Board subsequently worked out a compromise with golf course officials.

On Aug. 6, village trustees approved an ordinance allowing for a trial exemption until Sept. 17. Golf courses can begin using hand-pushed and powered lawn mowers at 5:30 a.m., and anyone can start mowing at 7 a.m.

Still, the issue is not out of the rough.

Golf course officials argued at Tuesday night's board meeting that even the partial exemption was hurting their business, and they asked for a full waiver of the ordinance. Golfers expect freshly cut greens and fairways and will go elsewhere if they do not get them, officials said.

"We recently held our club championship, and we weren't able to provide the product that (members) are accustomed to," the club's marketing director, Mike Lange, said Tuesday night. "Members and other customers talk about their experiences on the course."

The issue is scheduled to be discussed more at the board's Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday night.

Club officials said Tuesday they were sympathetic to some residents' complaints but added that people had to accept some responsibility for living near a golf course that wants to remain in business.

"We want to be a good neighbor to these folks," Lange said. "We are trying mufflers on some of the tractors. The hand mowing is not working out very well."

Beginning mowing at 7 a.m. is too late to get a course ready for early golfers and mowing during the day can be dangerous for people on the courses, as well as disruptive to business, officials said.

The mowing is not even a year-round problem, said course superintendent Dan Nielsen, who is in charge of the grounds' upkeep.

"We are only talking about three to four months of the year that it is even light enough" to mow that early, he said.

A handful of golfers and nearby residents joined course officials at Tuesday's meeting to defend early-morning mowing. Lange also said the club conducted a survey of neighboring residents, saying 72 of 79 respondents in favor of allowing it.

"We were aware that there may be a wayward golf ball or noise from mowing," said Scott Eshelman, who said he moved near the course in December.

"The club was there before any of us were there," Eshelman said. "I don't think we have a right to complain. It would be like someone moving next to O'Hare and complaining about the noise from the airplanes."

Ed Novak said he moved next to the course in 1986 and was the first person to buy property next to the course.

"It seems to me that to the majority of residents, the mowing doesn't affect their lives," Novak said.

Other suburbs with anti-noise ordinances have sympathized with their golf courses and provided some exemptions for them.

Highland Park, for example, banned backpack-mounted leaf blowers during the summer four years ago--except for golf courses.

"To give the playing surfaces that players are accustomed to, it requires mowing greens on a daily basis and mowing fairways and tee surfaces three to four times a week," said Bruce Williams, president of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and a superintendent at the Bob O' Links Golf Club in Highland Park.